From Tag Team To Top Guy: Bret Hart's Ascension To The WrestleMania Main Event

10. The Early WWF Days

By the time Bret Hart arrived in the World Wrestling Federation in 1984, he'd already been wrestling for eight years. Of course, Hart, like so many others, cut his teeth in his father Stu's Stampede Wrestling.

It was upon Stampede being purchased by Vince McMahon in '84 that the Hitman landed in the WWF, with Bret one of a handful of Stampede wrestlers whose contract was included in that sale. Initially competing as a lower-card babyface singles act - despite his WWF debut seeing Hart team up with fellow Stampede alumnus, the Dynamite Kid - it was in 1985 that things really started to click for the Canadian when he turned heel, paired up with brother-in-law Jim Neidhart, and was placed under the stewardship of Jimmy Hart as the Hart Foundation.

That Hart Foundation moniker had previously been used for wrestlers managed by the Mouth of the South, but it soon became a mantle exclusively used by Bret and the Anvil. Neidhart's power and brash charisma meshed perfectly with Hart's sleek, smooth in-ring game, and the tandem would end up becoming one of the greatest tag teams in WWE history.

For the years that this iteration of the Hart Foundation were active, the tag ranks of the WWF was absolutely stacked, with classic teams such as the British Bulldogs, Demolition, the Rockers, the Fabulous Rougeaus, Strike Force, the Killer Bees and even the likes of the Nasty Boys, Power & Glory and the Powers of Pain - all of which the Hart Foundation put on brilliant bouts with.